Employment Contract advice saught.

Rangler

Rangler

Rangler

Associate
Joined
8 Mar 2004
Posts
888
Location
Leicestershire
Hi All just after a general feel of a situation thats come about at work.

For the last 4 years I've worked as part of an on-call rota whereby we get £270 month for being on call then 1.5x time for any hours we have to work if we get called. This only encompassed emergencies I.E systems down and not planned maintenance or software releases.

This week we've had an email stating that we will only get single (1x time) and we also have to do software releases and planned maintenance..

My employment contract T&C's states nothing about being part of an ON CALL team or being part of the rota, so my question is this..

Am i within my employment rights to ask myself to be removed from this rota.?

TIA.
 
Its at the top of GD :)

I can't offer advice but it sound to me that you're working on an assumed contract change as youve done it so long

That being said the same goes for your employer and its you should be paid your normal rates unless they go through some form of consultation process

I could be very wrong though heh
 
Surely they can't unilaterally just change these things? Presumably being on call would have to involve opting out of the working time directive too - something you've got the right to change your mind about AFAIK.

As with most of these types of issues I'd speak to a solicitor specialising in employment law - they tend to give you some general advice for free after you initiate contact and explain the problem, then you can pay if you need to go back to them because your employer isn't playing ball and you want them to write a letter on your behalf, give further advice etc..

If the employer (or rather more likely a naive manager who doesn't know the rules) is in the wrong then a mere letter could easily be enough for someone in HR/senior management to reign in whoever has potentially messed up here.
 
Rangler said:
Am i within my employment rights to ask myself to be removed from this rota.?
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Yes - just put in writing that you wish to be removed from the rota.

Is it safe to assume you're not a member of a trade union?

dowie said:
Surely they can't unilaterally just change these things?
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They can do anything they like if employees let them.
 
amigafan2003 said:
They can do anything they like if employees let them.
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But OP doesn't want to let them, thus the whole point of this thread, it wouldn't be a unilateral change if both parties agree to it. The question is whether a unilateral change is allowed like this?
 
dowie said:
But OP doesn't want to let them, thus the whole point of this thread, it wouldn't be a unilateral change if both parties agree to it. The question is whether a unilateral change is allowed like this?
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I think the point being made is that quite often employers get away with things because employees are not aware of their rights, don't want to rock the boat by pushing back, don't have the time to find out if they are getting screwed etc.

I would say that a one-third reduction in your on-call hourly earnings plus the probability of losing more of your away from work time to scheduled maintenance tasks whereas before it was just emergency cover is something that the employer should expect to have to discuss with you and negotiate for. But take legal advice and maybe see if there's a way of gauging how your co-workers feel about this without putting yourself in the position of some sort of leader of a rebellion.
 
Caged said:
I think the point being made is that quite often employers get away with things because employees are not aware of their rights, don't want to rock the boat by pushing back, don't have the time to find out if they are getting screwed etc.
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yes but the point was it is rather an irrelevant point to make in a thread where the employee wants to find out about his rights presumably in order to find out whether he can push back

again the question is whether they can unilaterally do this - I think it is abundantly obvious that they can do this if both parties agree to it...
 
I would push back and expect them to renegotiate. If they're expecting you to increase your out of call hours, but reduce a large percentage of your out of call rate, then i'd be expecting your base rate to increase. For example, if you're going to lose £300 a month from the new on-call rate, i'd push for an increase of £4-5k.

I'm going to assume you've been in your position for at least 2 years?
 
I am not a lawyer, but I would find an employment one. They would probably ask is the on call treated as voluntary? Since it's not in your actual contract, they would have a hard time holding you to do on call/overtime especially since they are changing the terms with no negotiation. If you do opt out, you might get some stick from colleagues/mugs. Again, employment lawyer would help you find out what constitutes as workplace bullying etc.
 
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